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For the first three years of high school, Luxanna "Lux " Crownguard had been the unrivaled queen of the prestigious Piltover High. The best grades, the highest test results, head cheerleader for the school's basketball team, she stood at the pinnacle of the social pecking order. Her word was as good as law, and none dared to cross her.
Yes, for three years, she had been the queen of Piltover High, and Lux had grown accustomed to her superiority.
And then the new girl transferred in.
Powder Lane.
A small and slender girl with sparkling pink eyes, Powder wore her blue hair in two little buns on top of her head. She had a dusting of freckles across her nose, and was a little bucktoothed, which everyone else in school seemed to find charming when she smiled.
Lux hated that smile.
Powder was kind, and considerate, soft spoken but not shy, and sharp as a tack. Ever since she had transferred in, Lux found herself fighting tooth and nail to maintain her status as number one student whenever they shared a science or math class.
Lux hated how clever Powder was.
With athleticism that defied her svelte frame, Powder was quickly recognized as the star player of the girls basketball team in spite of her size. She was quick on her feet, precise with her passes, and could put on bursts of speed that made every other player on the court look like they were standing still.
Lux hated how Powder looked in her basketball shorts and jersey.
Powder sat to Lux's left in homeroom, second from the back and between Lux and the windows outside. She always had her textbooks and her homework prepped and ready to go, and she had an infuriating habit of doodling things in the margins of her notebook when the teacher wasn't looking.
Lux hated those cute little doodles.
For weeks and weeks and months and months Lux sat on her hate. What else could she do? She was the queen bee, the perfect girl, so she had to play nice. Sometimes circumstance would put her in a position where she had to interact with the other girl, though it was never Powder herself who initiated a conversation.
Lux hated talking to Powder.
Her heart raced with fury whenever she got too close to Powder, and one time when Powder accidentally brushed up against her getting to her desk, Lux and gone red in the face with the sheer indignity of it.
All of that, all of those moments of inexplicable sweaty palms and feeling like her very skin was burning whenever Powder locked eyes with her, Lux repressed all of it, seething with anger at this upstart.
Even though it had been months now, Lux had been lucky enough to never get stuck on clean up duty with Powder.
So when the bell rang, dismissing the students from school, Lux found herself staring daggers at her most hated classmate.
"Heya Lux," she said, smiling that damn little bucktoothed smile that Lux hated so much, "I owed Ekko a favor so I'm subbing in for him to clean up the classroom. Should I get the blackboard or start stacking chairs?"
Powder was twiddling her thumbs, looking at Lux with those damn pink eyes and that damn little smile and her damn pretty face and-
That was the last straw, Lux just couldn't hold her hatred back any longer.
Lux got up from her seat abruptly, leaving her papers and books on her desk as she stomped over to the classroom door. With a key she technically wasn't supposed to have, she locked the two of them in.
"Um, Lux? What are you-"
"Shut up!" Lux hissed, whirling on Powder and stalking toward her. Powder backed away until her back was pressed against the blackboard, chalk rubbing off on the other girl's short sleeved uniform.
Slamming one hand flat against the blackboard next to Powder's head, Lux leaned in close, towering over the smaller girl so much that she had to tilt her head down to stare into those damn pink eyes she hated so much.
"Listen up, and listen good. I hate you. I've hated you since I first saw you," she snapped, feeling warmer and warmer as she felt Powder's breath on her face. There was just something about Powder that made Lux feel so hot, made her feel so much hate.
"Wha- What? But you've been so nice to me!"
Lux's lips twisted into a bitter grimace, snarling at her blue haired classmate, "But I do hate you. I hate your damn hair. I hate your damn smile. I hate how your eyes sparkle when you talk to other girls!"
Small tears started to form in Powder's eyes, and Lux could feel her breath turning ragged as she continued, "I hate how nice the school uniform looks on you! I hate that other people pay so much attention to you! I hate how you smell after gym practice, and I hate how you look with your hair all messy and sweaty after a basketball game!"
Powder's eyes were not just filling with tears but also fear, pink eyes darting around, looking for an escape that wasn't there. Lux's arm was between her and the locked door, and being on the third floor made jumping out of the window an unhealthy prospect to put it lightly.
Lux's voice dropped into a rasp, "I hate you so much! You can't sit next to me, looking that damn cute and not expect me to hate you! I hate how you let other girls touch your hair and share lunches with you! I hate that even though you sit next to me you've never bothered to try and talk to me!"
With tears starting to trickle down her cheeks, Powder sobbed, "So w-what are you going to do to me? D-Do you want me to stay away?! I- I can't transfer so late in the year! And our seats are assigned!"
Lux felt like she wasn't getting enough air, like her body was burning up, like her guts were on fire. "I don't care, just fix it! I hate how cute you are, and I hate how happy you look without me! Just, just stop it! Stop looking at other girls, and stop being so cute around other people, and stop- stop making me hate you!"
Powder was staring up at her with shock, and before Lux could react, a small, slender hand reached up and brushed away a tear that was dripping down Lux's cheek.
A tear?
"Lux… shot in the dark, but are you, ya know, gay?"
The word struck her like a physical blow, and Lux almost stumbled throwing herself away from Powder. She wasn't- It's not like- She couldn't be gay, her parents would kill her! Every week she'd be reminded that being gay wasn't even an option for her, that she was a good girl who liked boys, just like she was supposed to!
Lux felt close to a panic, she hated this, she hated Powder! "N-n-no! I- I hate you! Don't try to make this about me!"
Powder stepped forward, reaching for Lux's face and the tears that were still running down her cheeks. "Lux," she said in the soft, cute voice that Lux hated so much, "Do you 'hate' any of the boys in our class? Or maybe you've 'hated' other girls before?"
Lux stiffened, backing away slowly from Powder with no small measure of hesitation in her voice, "I- no, boys are stupid, there's no point in hating them. And- and I have never hated a girl like I hate you, so I know I hate you!"
Lux's back bumped against the lockers in the back of the classroom, and in a mirror of what Lux did to Powder, now Powder slammed one hand against the lockers to stop Lux from making a break for the door. With her other hand, she reached up and started to wipe away Lux's tears again.
"Lux," Powder whispered, only just audible over the sound of Lux's sobs, "what if I told you that you don't hate me?"
Lux's shoulders shook, this didn't make sense, none of this made sense! She wasn't gay, she wasn't! And she did hate Powder, she hated her so much her heart ached! "I hate you, I hate this! What is it then, what am I feeling if it's not hate!?!"
"It's love."
There was the sudden blur of motion, the hint of glowing pink eyes widened with excitement, and suddenly Lux felt soft lips press against her own.
Powder had kissed her.
Powder had kissed her?!
Settling back down onto her heels, Powder looked up at Lux with a mischievous grin that Lux immediately hated. "So, did you hate that, or didja love it?"
Lux's hands snapped closed around the collar of Powder's shirt and she rasped, "I hated that."
Powder's mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide with horror. Lux could almost see the apology on the tip of the other girl's tongue, could feel the regret resonating in her heart.
But before Powder could say anything, apology or otherwise, Lux leaned down and kissed her right back, pushing her tongue into Powder's mouth to shut her up.
She hated this, what was she even doing?! No, this was reasonable, she didn't want to hear a damn thing Powder had to say, she was just stopping her from talking! She should stop, but something about the feeling the warmth of Powder's lips, the heat of her mouth? Lux hated how she couldn't stop herself.
Lux stopped the kiss only once her lungs were burning with the need for air, pulling away with her chest heaving and her heart bashing against the inside of her ribs like it wanted out. Her blood was lightning and her mind was a storm. This was all hatred, just anger that had been begging to be set free.
"I hated that, and I hate you."
"Wa-wait, if you hated that, why did you just-?"
Lux leaned down and kissed her again.
"I hate you," Lux murmured, her kisses growing frantic, almost desperate. She was insane with hatred, that's the only reason she would even think to kiss another girl! Especially this girl, the source of her insanity.
"I hate you," she whispered, taking one hand off of Powder's collar to gently tuck a loose strand of blue hair behind the other girl's ear. Lux pressed her lips to Powder's throat, kissing the slim column of muscles and blood. She hated how Powder whimpered when Lux lightly grazed her teeth across the smaller girl's collar.
Lux had to stop touching Powder's hair, grabbing her by the hip to help control their descent as the other girl's knees folded, dragging them both down to the classroom floor.
"I hate you," she said, sitting almost on top of Powder, swooping in for another kiss before the bluenette could get a word in edgewise. She hated the taste of Powder's lips, hated how the other girl was somehow almost sweet.
"I hate that you took my first kiss," Lux said in another momentary break between kisses, and then again when Powder had to pull back to take a breath, Lux murmured, "I hate how your lips feel against mine. I hate how silky your hair feels. I hate everything about you, Powder."
Powder was gasping, and quickly got one hand in front of Lux's face to stave off any more kisses, "Okay okay okay, wait. What's with the hate thing? Most people don't kiss people they hate. Verbal tic? Mental block? Weird hang up about the word love? Or maybe just loving another girl?"
Lux couldn't help but stiffen up at the last one, and Powder nodded, smiling softly. "Okay, that's easy enough then. If you like me, and I mean like me like me, then I want you to smile."
Lux froze, and closed her eyes. She couldn't even think it, she couldn't dare. She was a girl, and her parents had been very clear what girls could and couldn't do, and girls couldn't love other girls, so she hated Powder so she shouldn't smile!
But… she knew better, didn't she? That the world was full of things that her parents wanted her to have nothing to do with. That people could be gay and still be good people, or use drugs and still be kind and peaceful.
After all, she didn't think less of Sona for her relationship with Akali, or judge them harshly for smoking weed behind the gymnasium from time to time.
Beyond that, it wasn't her parents who could make this decision. They didn't own her heart. Truth be told, Lux wasn't sure if she owned it either, or if her heart owned her.
She… she wasn't sure she could say it. Her whole life she'd been told that she couldn't love other girls like that.
But even if she couldn't say it, even as the harsh words of her mother and her father bounced around in her head, even as she shook with an emotion she couldn't voice, Lux knew what to she wanted to do, what she needed to do.
And so Lux smiled.
"Damn… I've thought it for a while, but you have a really beautiful smile, Lux."
More tears dripped down Lux's face, and she sniffled through the tears with a grin that stretched from ear to ear, "I hate you so much, Powder."
"Yeah yeah, I love you too. C'mon, unlock the door and let's get this room cleaned up before anyone stops by to ask questions."
Powder looked out the window as class let out for lunch, bracing herself for what she knew was coming.
It had been two weeks since Lux had given her that fateful smile, and what a weird two weeks it had been.
There had been no small amount of whispering and pointing when Lux first grabbed Powder by the wrist and dragged her off to have lunch on the school roof. When Lux came back from that lunch glowing and Powder looking half dead, the whispers and stares got worse.
The rumor mill went into overdrive the first time someone heard Lux telling Powder she hated her. From what Powder could gather, Lux had used that word approximately never before she met Powder.
Then there was the incident when some stupid blonde guy apparently spotted Lux pinning Powder against a wall in the stairwell, her tongue about half-way down Powder's throat.
But with a combination of Lux's social standing, Lux's best friend Seraphine's mastery of every social media platform under the sun, and Powder's best friend Ekko's persuasive charm, the other students knew the score now.
Yes, they still got some strange looks, and yes, the day Lux's parents found out was probably the day she'd need to move in with Powder and her dads. But for all the trouble on the horizon, Powder couldn't be happier.
With that said…
"Oof!"
Powder barely kept her seat when Lux lunged at her. Wrapping her arms around Powder's shoulders, Lux shoved her face into the crook of Powder's neck. Powder shivered at the feeling of Lux's breath on her neck, squirming ever so slightly as Lux started to press feather light kisses against her collarbone.
"Hey there Sunshine," Powder said with a giggle, "would you like to go get lunch with me?"
Eyes of sapphire looked up at Powder, and the blonde girl smiled with the light of a thousand suns.
"I'd hate to get lunch with you, Sunflower."
"Heh, love you too, Sunshine."